Weekly Current Affairs Prelims (21st to 27th January, 2020)
(Info-graphic Summary at the end)
Topic: Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-141 b.
Topic in Syllabus: Ecology & Environment
Context-
India has successfully achieved the complete phase out of Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-141 b.
- On 31 December, 2019, as part of the Government’s commitment for moving towards environment friendly technologies, in a significant first, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) brought out a notification in the Gazette of India through which the issuance of import license for HCFC-141b is prohibited from 1st January, 2020 under Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Amendment Rules, 2019 issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
- India had proactively and successfully taken the challenge of complete phase out of Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-141 b, which is a chemical used by foam manufacturing enterprises by 1.1.2020.
About HCFC-141b
- It is a chemical used by foam manufacturing enterprises and one of the most potent ozone depleting chemicals after Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
- (HCFC)-141 b is used mainly as a blowing agent in the production of rigid polyurethane (PU) foams.
- HCFC-141b is not produced in the country and all the domestic requirements are met through imports.
- Nearly, 50 % of the consumption of ozone depleting chemicals in the country was attributable to HCFC-141 b in the foam sector.
Challenges:
- The polyurethane foam sector has links with important economic sectors related to buildings, cold storages and cold chain infrastructure, automobiles, commercial refrigeration, domestic appliances such as refrigerators, water geysers, thermo ware, office and domestic furniture applications, specific high value niche applications etc.
- In India, the foam manufacturing sector is mix of large, medium and small enterprises having varying capacities, with preponderance of MSMEs. Many of the MSMEs operate largely in the informal sector.
- To ensure minimal dislocation in the sector and for enhancing the capacities of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in converting to low-GWP non-ODS technologies, training and awareness programmes on non ODS and low GWP alternatives to HCFCs including adoption of such alternatives have been organized in close collaboration with Industry and MSMEs will also be facilitated for adequate tie-ups with system houses, laboratories for getting their material tested, etc, in addition to organizing study tours, field visits, etc.
- Noting the challenges, the Ozone Cell, MoEF&CC entered into a MOA with the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology, Department of Chemicals &Petrochemicals to facilitate and hand-holding foam manufacturing enterprises.
- Transitioning to non HCFC and low GWP alternatives. As part of assistance made available to the enterprises technology workshops, field trials, on-site demonstration and support, practical hands on training and product validation are being provided.
- Already enterprises assisted for stabilizing alternative technologies have been able to move towards adoption of alternatives at commercial scale.
Sample Question
Consider the following statements.
- India has successfully achieved the complete phase out of Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-141 b, which is a chemical used by foam manufacturing enterprises.
- Before the phase out of Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-141 b, India was one of the major producers of HCFC-141b.
- The complete phase out of HCFC 141 b from the country is as agreed under Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1, 2
b) 1, 3
c) 2, 3
d) 1, 2, 3
Answer: b
Topic: 8 wonders of SCO
Topic in Syllabus: International Affairs
Context:
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has included the Statue of Unity among the ‘Eight Wonders of the SCO.
Key facts:
- At 182 metre, the statue is 23 metre taller than China’s Spring Temple Buddha statue and almost double the height of the Statue of Liberty (93 metre tall) in US.
- Located on the Sadhu Bet island, near Rajpipla on the Narmada river, the Statue of Unity is located between the Satpura and the Vindhya mountain ranges.
The Eight Wonders of the SCO are:
- India — the Statue of Unity.
- Kazakhstan — the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly.
- China — The Daming imperial palace complex.
- Kyrgyzstan — Lake Issyk-Kul.
- Pakistan — The Great Mughals’ heritage at Lahore.
- Russia — The Golden Ring cities.
- Tajikistan — The Palace of Nowruz.
- Uzbekistan — the Poi Kalon complex.
About the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO):
- It is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation.
- It’s creation was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.
- It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.
- The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed during the St.Petersburg SCO Heads of State meeting in June 2002, and entered into force on 19 September 2003.
The SCO’s main goals are as follows:
Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.
The SCO’s official languages are Russian and Chinese.
Bodies under SCO:
- Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation.
- SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once a year to discuss the organisation’s multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas, to resolve current important economic and other cooperation issues, and also to approve the organisation’s annual budget.
- The organisation has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.
- The SCO Secretary-General and the Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO RATS *are appointed by the Council of Heads of State for a term of three years.
Currently,
- SCO comprises eight member states, namely the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan;
- SCO counts four observer states, namely the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Mongolia;
- SCO has six dialogue partners, namely the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Republic of Turkey, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Sample Question
Consider the following statements regarding BRICS grouping.
- Not all BRICS members are the members of G20.
- Since 2009, the BRICS nations have met annually at formal summits.
- New Development Bank (NDB) is a multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS countries with each country contributing equally to its equity.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1, 2
b) 2, 3
c) 1, 3
d) 2 only
Answer: b
Topic: National Income Accounting
Topic in Syllabus: Indian Economy
Context:
In India, GDP is calculated by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). CSO functions under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. The System of National Accounting (SNA) is designed to measure production, consumption, and accumulation of income and wealth for assessing the performance of the economy.
- The new methodology for estimating GDP: Now the corporate affairs ministry’s MCA 21 database and 2011-12 as a base year, is being used for calculation of GDP It is a wide-ranging compilation of balance sheet data of lakhs of firms.
- MCA-21 database was used on the recommendations of the Rangarajan Commission, which reviewed the Indian Statistical System in 2001.
- The government has come out with a linked back-series of India’s growth numbers from 1950-51 to 2003-04, with 2011-12 as the base year, to align gross domestic product numbers from past years with the new internationally accepted methodology and facilitate comparisons.
- Previously, the GDP was estimated based on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data from the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI).
- The government approved the merger of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
- So far, the National Statistical Commission (NSC), the highest authority of official statistics, had been exercising the functions as the governing council of the NSSO.
- The functions include deciding the subjects for coverage in each NSS round, formulating methodology, and overseeing the processing of data and the release of survey reports and unit-level data by the NSSO.
Concerns:
As official statistics are a public good, giving information about the state of the economy and the success of governance, it needs to be independent to be impartial.
- There are fears that the merger is an attempt to make the NSC toothless and officially defunct.
- The present series encountered serious problems for the price adjustment, specifically for the services sector contributing about 60% of GDP, in the absence of appropriate price indices for most service sectors.
- Price indices distorted real growth: The CSO uses a mix of consumer price index (CPI) (industrial workers), CPI (agricultural laborers), Quantum indices (indices based on the quantity of units of goods and services independent of the monetary values) and the wholesale price index (WPI) to blow up the nominal values at current prices into their constant price equivalents.
- The deflators used in the new series could not effectively separate out price effects from the current value to arrive at a real volume estimate at a constant price.
- Defunct enterprises in MCA-21: The report based on a field survey of services firms showed that 16.4% of companies in the MCA-21 database were either non-traceable or closed, and another 21.4% were ‘out of coverage’ or misclassified.
- Insufficiency in ASI data: ASI underestimates manufacturing growth in the GDP by up to one percentage point as about half the manufacturing companies registered under the Companies Act were not in the ASI list.
- Unchanged approach: price and production indices are constructed using a fixed base Laspeyres Index, yield rate for paddy is estimated by crop cutting experiments, and the organization of field surveys for collection of data on employment-unemployment, consumer expenditure, industrial output, assets, and liabilities continue.
- Productivity and remunerative price of output are major concerns for agriculture.
- The growing inequality and concentration of wealth: Monopoly power, inefficient input-output mix, dumping, obsolete technology, and production mix
- Ignoring structural issues: The macroeconomic framework assumes symmetric income distribution as it focuses on a trend-cycle decomposition of GDP for growth and a trickledown effect for percolation of income.
- Key recommendations of the Rangarajan Commission and successive National Statistical Commissions faced stumbling blocks in implementation.
Way forward
- Data is the new oil
- For agriculture: It is necessary to collect data on factors such as soil conditions, moisture, temperature, water, and fertilizer use determining yield, the impact of intermediary and forward trade on farm gate price and so on.
- Data logistics: Along with GDP, we need data to assess competitiveness, inclusive growth, fourth-generation Industrial Revolution riding on the Internet of things, biotechnology, robotics-influencing employment and productivity, environmental protection, sustainable development, and social welfare.
- The need for a versatile data warehouse as a component of big-data technology.
- Data reforming committees should have the support of a dedicated team for audit, and the ability to implement decisions by cutting red tape.
- For efficiency and stability: we need to have detailed data on how: markets clear, prices are formed, risks build-up, institutions function and, in turn, influence the lifestyle of various sections of the people.
- The alternative system must rest on two pillars: the micro-behavior of individuals, and the structure of their mutual interactions.
- Best practices: For example, Israel collects these data for analysis to support productivity. The initiative under e-governance enabled the capturing of huge data, which needs to be collated for their meaningful use for the production of official statistics.
Sample Question
Consider the following statements with respect to Indian economy.
- GDP covers all productive activity for producing goods and services, without duplication.
- The System of National Accounting (SNA) is designed to measure production, consumption, and accumulation of income and wealth for assessing the performance of the economy.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
- a) 1 only
- b) 2 only
- c) Both 1 and 2
- d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: c
Topic: Purvodaya
Topic in Syllabus: Schemes & Programmes
Context:
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched PURVODAYA: Accelerated development of eastern India through integrated steel hub in Kolkata, West Bengal
Aim of Purvodaya
Purvodaya in the steel sector is aimed at driving accelerated development of Eastern India through the establishment of an integrated steel hub.
The potentiality of Eastern States
- Eastern states of India (Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal) and Northern part of Andhra Pradesh collectively hold ~80% of the country’s iron ore, ~100% of coking coal and a significant portion of chromite, bauxite and dolomite reserves.
- There is the presence of major ports such as Paradip, Haldia, Vizag, Kolkata, etc., with >30% of India’s major port capacity.
- In India’s march towards a $5 trillion economy, the 5 Eastern states can play a major role where the steel sector can become the catalyst.
- This Eastern belt has the potential to add more than 75% of the country’s incremental steel capacity envisioned by the National Steel Policy.
- It is expected that out of the 300 MT capacity by 2030-31, over 200 MT can come from this region alone, driven by Industry 4.0.
About Integrated Steel Hub
The proposed Integrated Steel Hub, encompassing Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Northern Andhra Pradesh, would serve as a torchbearer for socio-economic growth of Eastern India.
The objective of this hub would be to enable swift capacity addition and improve the overall competitiveness of steel producers both in terms of cost and quality. The Integrated Steel Hub would focus on 3 key elements:
- Capacity addition through easing the setup of Greenfield steel plants
- Development of steel clusters near integrated steel plants as well as demand centres.
- Transformation of logistics and utility infrastructure which would change the socio-economic landscape in the East
These elements would be supported through additional enablers such as ensured availability of raw materials, presence of supporting industries such as capital goods and well-established avenues for skill development.
Significance
Growth of the steel industry through such a hub would lead to significant employment opportunities across the entire value chain and will play a significant role in the overall socio-economic growth of Eastern India, thus reducing the disparity between the East and other regions of the country.
Sample Question
Consider the following statements with respect to National Start-up Advisory Council:
- It will consist of the non-official members, to be nominated by both Central and State governments.
- The Council will be chaired by Cabinet Secretary of Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
Which of the given above statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: d
Topic: Xenobot
Topic in Syllabus: Science & Technology
Context:
Tiny living robots have been created using cells taken from frog embryos by scientists in the United States
Facts:
About Xenobot
- It is a biological machine named after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis).
Significance:
- It could help the development of useful soft robots that can heal themselves when damaged.
- Because they are made of living tissue, they also decay once they stop working.
- In future, such living robots could be used to clean up microplastics, digest toxic materials, or even deliver drugs inside human bodies
Sample Question
Researchers have developed the world’s first ‘living robot’. What is the name of this living robot?*
(a) Xenobot
(b) Sonobot
(c) Hubot
(d) Moonobot
Answer: A
Topic: World Economic Outlook Report
Topic in Syllabus: International Affairs
Context:
The International Monetary Fund(IMF) has released its World Economic Outlook report.
Facts:
Report on Global Growth:
- The report has reduced its global growth projection to 2.9 percent in 2019, 3.3 percent in 2020 and 3.4 percent for 2021.
- The global growth forecasts has been reduced due to sharper than expected slowdowns in India and other emerging markets.
- But the report has said that a US-China trade deal is an expected sign that trade and manufacturing activity may soon recover.
Concerns:
- Rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran could disrupt global oil supply, hurt sentiment and weaken business investment.
- Social unrest across many countries could disrupt activity, complicate reform efforts and weaken sentiment dragging the growth lower than projected.
Report on India:
- The report has revised downward India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection to 4.8% for the financial year 2020 (FY20) and 5.8% for FY21.
- The downward is attributed to the current slowdown in the country, stress in the non-bank financial sector and weak rural income growth.
- However,the growth is expected to pick up to 6.5 percent in FY22, supported by monetary and fiscal stimulus as well as subdued oil prices.
Additional information:
About International Monetary Fund
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 countries. It was established in 1945.
- The main goal of IMF is to ensure the stability of the international monetary system.
- It also seeks to facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
Sample Question
Which of the following reports have/has been published by World Economic Forum?
- Networked Readiness Index
- Global Energy Transition Index
- Global Gender Gap Index
- Future Of Jobs Report
- Future Of Work In India
Select the correct answer using the code below:
(a) 1, 2 and 3
(b) 2 and 3
(c) 1, 2, 3 and 4
(d) All of the above
Answer: D
Topic: Enemy Property
Topic in Syllabus: Indian Polity
Context:
Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister will monitor the disposal of over 9,400 enemy properties which the government estimates is worth about Rs 1 lakh crore.
Facts:
About Enemy property:
- When wars broke out between India and China in 1962 and India and Pakistan in 1965 and 1971,the central government took over properties of citizens of China and Pakistan in India under the Defence of India Acts.
- These Acts define an enemy as a country that committed an act of aggression against India and its citizens.The properties of enemies in India were classified as enemy property.
How did India deal with enemy property?
- Parliament of India enacted the Enemy Property Act in 1968.It provided for the continuous vesting of enemy property in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.
- The central government through the Custodian is in possession of enemy properties spread across many states in the country.
About Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill,2016:
- In 2017,Parliament passed The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill,2016.
- The bill amended The Enemy Property Act,1968 and The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.
Key features of the bill:
- It makes the Custodian the owner of enemy property retrospectively from 1968.
- It voids the legal sales undertaken by enemies of enemy properties since 1968.This means that a person who may have bought an enemy property in good faith when such sale and purchase was legal, now stands to lose the property.
- It prohibits Indian citizens who are legal heirs of enemies from inheriting enemy property, and brings them within the definition of ‘enemy’.
- It also prohibits civil courts and other authorities from hearing certain disputes relating to enemy property.
Sample Question
Consider the following statements:
- Enemy property refers to assets left behind by individuals who migrated to Pakistan or China and are citizens of India.
- Punjab has the highest number of enemy properties left behind by Pakistani nationals, followed by West Bengal.
- The Enemy Property Act enacted in 1968 regulates Enemy properties.
Which of the given above statements is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 3
(b) 1 Only
(c) 3 Only
(d) 2 and 3
Answer: c
Topic: Blue Corner Notice
Topic in Syllabus: Indian Governance
Context:
The Interpol has issued a blue corner notice to help locate self-styled godman Nithyananda
Prelims Point of View
- Notices are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information.
- There are seven types of notices — Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, and Purple Notice.
Sample Question
Consider the following statements regarding JUS COGENS.
- JUS COGENS means the principles which form the norms of international law that cannot be set aside.
- These norms cannot be offset by a separate treaty between parties intending to do so.
- The jus cogens rules have been sanctioned by the Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties of 1969.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1, 2
b) 2, 3
c) 1, 3
d) 1, 2, 3
Answer: d
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